The BBC was accused of deceiving viewers yesterday after revealing the extent of artificial footage in its latest big wildlife documentary series.

Hidden Kingdoms, which will be shown on BBC One next week, promises a close-up look at some of the tiniest creatures in the animal kingdom. Dramatic scenes will include a grasshopper mouse fleeing a swooping hawk in an American desert and an African elephant shrew being pursued by a monitor lizard.

The BBC has already admitted in advance of the series that some of these scenes were “dramatised”, after criticism that previous natural history programmes were misleading because